Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts a victim's files, and demands electronic payment of a ransom in order to provide a decryption key. Ransomware often targets specific files which tend to be the most import to users and the most difficult to recreate, such as user created documents, photographs, videos, etc. The encryption used in ransomware attacks has become very sophisticated, and there is typically no practicable way of decrypting a user's files without the decryption key.
Backup solutions automatically backup files from the computers of users and organizations to the cloud. Thus, if a backup system is installed on a computer and a current, clean backup exists of the files that were encrypted by a ransomware attack, the backup can be used for recovery. However, once the ransomware encrypts the user's files, conventional backups from that point on will be encrypted. A backup from an earlier recovery point prior to the attack can be used, but depending upon how often backups are created, a substantial amount of content could be lost. For example, if backups are made weekly on Sundays, an attack on Saturday will destroy six days of content.
It would be desirable to address these issues.